Uyo—THE Prelate Emeritus of Methodist Church Nigeria, MCN, His Eminence Sunday Mbang, has condemned the use of military by the Federal Government to address the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta region.
The cleric who made this known, yesterday, while fielding questions from newsmen during his 80th birthday celebration at his home town Eket, said that using force will not solve the problems in the region, but will rather worsen the situation.
He said: “The truth is that you cannot use both dialogue and force simultaneously to settle issues. I would have preferred dialogue. But when you are talking about dialogue, and you bring in the military, it defeats the purpose of dialogue. I was very disappointed to see Operation Crocodile Smile.
“I must be sincere, the trouble in the Niger Delta is not today’s trouble, it has been on for a very long time and I am sure that people know the solution to them but they decided to dance around what they know. The solution is not these boys carrying guns.
“There are certain things in the Niger Delta that should be dealt with. For the sake of justice, let the government deal with those things through dialogue. The Niger Delta cannot get everything they want, but they can get some of their desires. I am sure that by then, they will have peace; but if they think they can use force, it is not going to work.”
Continuing, the octogenarian emphasized that the use of force to solve issues has never brought results anywhere in the world, stressing that the case of the Niger Delta does not require the use of force.
“It has not worked anywhere. You see, America wanted to use force in Afghanistan, Iraq and others places, but it did not solve the problems,” he added.
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